Yeah, Blender is the best free modeler out there by far. Takes a while to learn it though.

I would argue the Wings3D is the superior modeling package. Now for a full suite, free, you really can't beat Blender. But until Blender gets n-gons ( and maybe even after ), Wings is superior when it comes to modeling.

Yes, I know there are people that prefer Wings. I meant as a modeling package. I guess Blender is working on something called bmesh which should be like n-gons. I know some prefer Sketchup also, but they usually export into Blender when done modeling for texturing/animation, etc. Blender can be confusing to learn as a modeler. I'm currently spending a lot of time relearning everything since they went to the 2.5 series.

I'm not sure. I've looked at both Sketchup and Wings, but I have been mostly working in Blender. It's got some great addons and is constantly improving. From what I've seen of Sketchup, it can really knock out some models fast, so I guess it's between those two for me. The trouble is, a friend of mine says it doesn't import that well and he has to make changes. He still prefers it to Blender, though.

try [www.3d-coat.com](www.3d-coat.com), thats what I suggest. but it aint free, it has its own cloth functionality, im not sure what you mean by needing cloth tho, it comes in different forms... 3d-coat is primarily for modelling, it doesnt even handle animation and rigging.

blender is the best standard do it all 3d application tho, its like 3ds max... except... free... and the ambient occlusion and SSS are nice!

Blender does some sculpting also, but those models aren't at all game friendly. They're more for getting a normal map. That whole thing is more than I care to do. I'd rather just get some normals from photographs or something. I used to model characters but now I figure I can use MakeHuman for that and just model clothing and armor or whatever. You have to be able to model an entire atmosphere and sculpting modelers aren't really set up for that. Buildings, etc, are basically low poly anyway and that's really the meat and potatoes of game environments. Editors in Unity can do the terrain and vegetation rapidly, or you can use Blender addons but they tend to be high poly also. I can also use bezier curves for more rounded shapes and transfer them into polys. Sculpting is kind of for certain complex shapes and that's about it. You can do most environmental things by using extrusions or possibly bezier curves or spins for more smooth curving, when you're done, you have a low poly model ready for a game. I was looking at some free models, and people are using way too many polys anymore for games. Better off doing most of it myself, plus there aren't any copyright problems. My focus right now is getting productive and setting up a library that's easy to keep track of models I already made. I wasn't into realistic models before, but lately I want to do more complex stories that would work better in that environment. I don't care if they look like they came out of a magazine, I just want something I can use to tell a story. I don't know if you played the later 3d Broken Sword games, but I'd like to do something like that except with text boxes because getting voice actors is too much work.

Fireside, I believe in easy to use modellers!!!! Make human is GREAT!! Im sure your models look great, its not that hard, and its heaps of fun.

Say you have a dashboard, steering wheel, bonnet, all the fairings, and all you had to do was slap them together, then you have make car! Thats how voxels work, you buy the premade kit then just glue it together.

I have 3 techno kits I work with now installed, Theres enough there to make transformers, factories, skeleton robots, all sorts.

Voxel boolean objects are fantastic for mechanical shapes, so easy to use.

About the vertex count problem->

I dont mind the huge vertex counts, you can always mip them to distance, didnt unlimited detail proove we can render the whole thing in point cloud these days?

In fact, if you connected your models together at joins (like maybe some kind of portal entrance) you could model the entire universe in 3d coat by connecting together hipoly 3d models you make separately